Main Street crews racing to finish on time

EDMONDS, Washington (STPNS) -- The Main Street Decorative Lighting and Sidewalk Enhancement project on Main Street is looking a lot better lately, although access to some businesses is still somewhat limited.

The first layer of pavement was laid Friday, Nov. 2, and it gives a much more finished look to the project while work is being done.

The removal of PUD poles is finished, and concrete curbs and gutters have been placed. Workers have finished installing new stormwater pipe and catch basins, and completed the removal of concrete beneath the intersection at Main Street and 6th Avenue.

Work includes preparing the street subgrade and installing irrigation and electrical utilities at the intersection of Main and 6th, removing the remaining sidewalks and placing new sidewalks, and laying foundations for lights and flower poles.

Crews will soon place the mid-block decorative crosswalk, place decorative sidewalks at 6th and Main, and install new street lights and flower poles.

“We’re working on the sidewalks on the north side of Main Street today,” Public Works Director Phil Williams said. “We’ll have quite a chunk of concrete to pour.”

They will also construct a retaining wall on the south side of Main Street just east of Gallery North. The offstreet parking lot there is at a different level than the street, and it needs to be shored up a little more.

Crews also need to place the final layer of asphalt, plant new decorative plants and paint markings, and install signage on the street.

The big question is whether the project will be finished on time.

The original completion date was set for Nov. 19, but there have been setbacks.

“We had to issue a change order because there was a lot more concrete down the sides of Main Street than we knew about,” Williams said. “It took a few more days to remove it all.”

The city had done a number of borings staggered along the middle line of Main Street to get an idea of what was underneath, but the concrete was only along each side of the road; none of the borings hit concrete.

It’s been there from somewhere around the 1920s or ’30s, Williams said.

“I’m still hopeful that completion date will happen,” he said. “The crews worked last Saturday, and they’re planning on working this Saturday also.

“But whether we get it or not remains to be seen.”

Crews have had a couple other smaller “surprises” including an old coal chute they found on the north side of Main Street that needed to be filled in.

“We’re doing everything we can to finish this project on time,” city engineer Rob English said.